The field of the invention is that of passenger vehicle tire treads and more specifically the design of the rolling surface of such treads.
Winter driving on roads covered with snow and ice requires a tread that has a great many ridges and recesses in order to promote better grip by storing and/or clearing the fluid or solid particles present on these roads.
Clearing means that the fluid or solid particles are drained away from direct contact between the tread and the roadway so that the material of which the tread is made is in direct contact with the roadway.
While it is possible to use means that allow this drainage to be performed once the tire has undergone an initial degree of wear (particularly once cavities initially present within the tread have reached the tread surface), it has been found that before it reaches this initial degree of wear, a tread may exhibit inferior performance.
The object of the invention is therefore to provide a technical solution to the problem of insufficient grip (“grip” being the accepted English term for adhesion) in the first few kilometers of running with a new tread.